Web learning centre creates 30 new jobs

28 Jun 200417 Views

As many as 30 new jobs are to be created over the next five years following the decision by the ECC (Education, through Communication and for the Community) Foreign Language Institute to locate its first e-learning centre outside of Japan at Harcourt Street in Dublin.

The 30 new jobs will primarily be for native English-speaking graduates and the first group of tutors has already been employed. Using broadband and web-conferencing technologies to provide lessons, ECC’s Web Lesson product allows students to attend tutorials from their homes.

The Dublin centre will add to the capacity of the centre in Osaka, Japan, and due to the time difference, will extend the availability of the service for customers in Japan. E-learning accounts for over €370m of Japan’s more than €2.2bn foreign language teaching industry.

Commenting on the jobs announcement, ECC’s founder HajimeOkamura said: “The success of our Web Lesson initiative since its launch in 2002 is the main reason for establishing this centre. The operating costs in Ireland in terms of telecommunications, property and payroll made Dublin an ideal location for this centre and will make it a more cost-effective operation than establishing a similar further centre in Japan.”

Tanáiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Harney TD added: “This is a good-quality international services project and with its requirement for high telecommunications bandwidth at cost-effect rates it is a good endorsement of our telecommunications infrastructure.

“This innovative web-based project will be an important addition to Ireland’s emerging e-learning sector. Due to ECC’s excellent profile in Japan this project will be an important reference for IDA Ireland in marketing to other companies in Japan,” Harney added.